Wednesday, May 30, 2018

When you’re in Washington, you can visit memorials to veterans
of Vietnam, Korea and World War II -- but you won’t find one for the veterans
of World War I.

“If all goes as hoped,” the National World War I
memorial will open in 2018, the 100th anniversary of the armistice
ending the Great War, I wrote in a column three years ago.

It certainly seemed doable. The last surviving World
War I veteran, Frank Buckles, died in 2011, after devoting his last years to
pushing for a memorial on the National Mall in Washington.

But all did not go as hoped. In a capital known for
its dysfunction, the National World War I Memorial could be Exhibit A.

For Americans, the Great War lasted one year, seven
months and five days – but planning for this national memorial has dragged on more
than five years.

The World War One Centennial Commission was created by
Congress in 2013 to educate people on what it calls “America’s forgotten war,
even though more Americans gave their lives during that war than during Korea
and Vietnam combined.”

Nearly 5 million American men and women served and
116,516 died in the “war to end all wars.”

Congress authorized building the national memorial in
Washington in 2014. But squabbling over the design continues, and no opening date
has been set. Planners now hope for 2021, Politico reported this week.

Washington once again could learn from the people in
cities and towns around the country, who gathered together to honor their World
War I dead in their hometowns. Residents of the District of Columbia built an
elegant memorial and bandstand in West Potomac Park in 1931 to honor the more
than 26,000 district residents who served in World War I.

Almost every city and county in Virginia has a
memorial to the local men and women who served in the First World War. The
240-foot tall Carillon in Richmond’s Byrd Park is the state’s memorial to the
3,700 Virginians who died in or because of World War I.

In Lynchburg, a “doughboy” statue at the base of
Monument Terrace remembers 43 casualties. A granite column outside Alexandria’s
Union Station commemorates the city’s World War I dead.

There’s even a National World War I Museum and
Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri. But not to include World War I with the memorials
to other 20th century wars in Washington would be wrong.

Congress has declared the National Mall complete, so the
commission in 2014 chose for the memorial’s site Pershing Park, a 1 ¾-acre
trapezoidal space on Pennsylvania Avenue between 14th and 15th
Streets, N.W., a block from the White House.

The park opened in 1981 as part of a plan to spruce up
Pennsylvania Avenue. Designed by noted architect M. Paul Friedberg, it was a
quiet oasis with a large pool and a waterfall in the summer that became an ice
rink in the winter. The pool, ice rink and the kiosk that served snacks have
long been closed, and the park has fallen into disrepair.

A 12-foot bronze statue of famous World War I Army General
John “Black Jack” Pershing shows him in uniform, his hat in his left hand, his
right hand beginning to raise his field glasses as he looks to the west.

In January 2016, Joe Weishaar, an
architect-in-training just 25 years old, won a design competition for the
national memorial. Last November, bigwigs brought out the gold shovels for a
ceremonial groundbreaking.

But there’s a complication. The National Park Service
in 2016 designated Pershing Park eligible for the National Register of Historic
Places because it once was a fine example of modern landscape design.

The designation could greatly limit how much of the
park can be obliterated to accommodate the new design, which includes a large bronze
sculpture by Sabin Howard of the life of a doughboy.

Every day the design dispute continues is a day school
children and tourists can’t visit a national memorial in Washington to learn
about the heroes who sacrificed so much in World War I. And that’s a capital
disgrace.

Many Democrats
feared their rebranding effort was just OK. It lacked the pizzazz of “Make
America Great Again,” originally used by Ronald Reagan and revived by Donald
Trump.

To
reconnect with the working- and middle-class voters who flocked to Trump last
time, the Democrats’ new economic plan includes such worthy, if familiar, ideas
as infrastructure jobs, raising the minimum wage, paid family and sick leave
and lowering the cost of prescription drugs.

This
week, for better or worse, Democrats doubled down on A Better Deal, with two new
planks – one to drain the swamp of political corruption and another to help
overworked and underpaid teachers.

The Better
Deal for our Democracy calls for voting rights protection, tighter laws on
lobbyists and foreign agents, citizen commissions to redraw congressional
districts, and even a constitutional amendment to reverse the Supreme Court’s
decision in Citizens United and rid politics of big money.

A Better
Deal for Teachers is a wide-ranging plan that involves spending $50 billion
over a decade to help states and school districts raise teacher pay and recruit
more teachers, and another $50 billion to pay for school infrastructure,
including new classrooms and technology.

The plan
offers a stark contrast with Trump, who proposed to cut federal education funds
5 percent in his fiscal 2019 budget.

But here’s
the kicker: Democrats want to raise taxes. The plan takes what amounts to a Yes
New Taxes pledge to pay for the education initiatives. They don’t want to raise
your taxes – just roll back Trump’s tax cuts on the top 1 percent of the
wealthiest taxpayers.

And so
once again a Democratic tax hike is center stage of a campaign.

When
Walter Mondale accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in
1984, he memorably declared: “Mister Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He
won’t tell you. I just did.”

Mondale’s
point was the next president would be forced to increase taxes to reduce the
federal deficit. It’s a quaint notion now, but in the last century people
actually worried about ballooning deficits.

So much
for honesty. Mondale got a one-way ticket home to Minnesota. But he was right:
Reagan raised taxes in 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987.

Trump grudgingly agreed to more federal spending than he
wanted in the last omnibus spending bill passed by Congress, but he has often
said he loves debt. He will not be inclined to raise taxes under any scenario.

Here’s a
question: Is it still folly in an election year to promise to raise taxes –
even if only on the rich and if the money goes to teachers?

We know Trump’s
answer. He will propose more tax cuts before November. No Republicans running
for Congress would dare suggest raising taxes and many may go along with more
cuts.

Trump
already is beating the tax drum.

“Nancy
Pelosi and the group – you heard her the other day – she wants to raise your
taxes. They want to get rid of the tax cut bill and raise your taxes. Somehow I
don’t think that plays well, but you never know, right?” he told an
anti-abortion rights fundraising gala Tuesday night.

Democrats
believe voters will support tax increases for projects they believe in -- especially
if someone else pays for them. Voters generally support higher taxes for the
rich.

But Democrats
may be making too bold a bet with their pledge to raise taxes in this political
climate.

Middle-class
voters could reward Democrats in November – but if Republicans can stoke fears
Democrats will next raise their taxes next, it could be repeat of Mondale’s
mistake.

You can hear grads nudging each other and saying, “Wow,
`act boldly’ – I never thought of that
before!” At least such advice does no harm.

Nobody wants to be the commencement speaker whose
remarks ignite a social media firestorm.

That’s what happened when Nella Gray Barkley, Sweet Briar
College class of 1955, delivered remarks at her alma mater, one of the nation’s
last remaining women’s colleges.

In one fell swoop, she seemed to belittle feminism and
the #MeToo movement and waxed nostalgic about the days when an engagement ring
was more prized than a college degree.

“I’m no raging feminist. I actually love men, and I
married one,” she said.

“I have little patience with the woman who arrives
breathlessly at her boss’s hotel room for a so-called conference,” she said in
her speech. “What did she think was going to happen?”

And, it’s “only natural for men from Mars to follow
the shortest skirt in the room.”

Barkley, a career coach in South Carolina, received
the “distinguished alumna” award in 2002. She's touted on the college website
for taking out a life insurance policy with Sweet Briar as sole beneficiary.

When students and grads took to social media to
complain about her speech, college president Meredith Woo sent an email.

“You don’t have to accept or refuse her perspective –
that is not the point – but I ask you to think about it,” Woo wrote, Inside
Higher Ed reported.

I suppose there are worse ways to launch one’s post-college
life than having to listen to someone say things that infuriate you. If nothing else, it’s good practice for conference calls at
the office. (Remember the mute button.)

But just as commencement isn’t the ideal venue to knock
a social movement embraced by many in the audience, it also isn’t the place for
a speaker to begin settling scores.

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used his commencement
address at Virginia Military Institute to encourage cadets to remember the
importance of truth, ethics and integrity.

In normal times, such advice would be typical inspirational
fare, but Tillerson spent 14 months in the Trump administration, where President
Donald Trump is known for his estrangement from facts.

“If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as
people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in
facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our
freedom,” Tillerson warned.

The former chief executive of Exxon Mobil did not call
out Trump by name, but there was no doubt who he meant when he said: “When we
as a people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth, even on what may seem the
most trivial matters, we go wobbly on America.”

He told cadets integrity “is the most valuable asset
you have,” and urged them to seek out employers who set high ethical standards.

“Blessed is the man who doesn’t blame all of his
failures on someone else. Blessed is the man that can say that the boy he was
would be proud of the man he is,” Tillerson said.

Critics complained he waited too long to speak out and
didn’t go far enough.

Maybe in the future Tillerson will follow other
commencement speakers’ advice and “act boldly” and “be fearless.”

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Haspel, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the
Central Intelligence Agency, joined the agency in 1985 and worked undercover for
more than 30 years.

“From my first days in training, I had a knack for the
nuts and bolts of my profession,” she told senators Wednesday at her
confirmation hearing. “I excelled in finding and acquiring secret information
that I obtained in brush passes, dead drops or in meetings in dusty alleys of
third world capitals.

“I recall very well my first meeting with a foreign
agent. It was on a dark, moonless night with an agent I had never met. When I
picked him up, he passed me the intelligence and I passed him an extra $500 for
the men he led. It was the beginning of an adventure I had only dreamed of.”

It sounds like fiction all right, and that’s the way
Haspel, 61, wants it.

There’s much the public doesn’t know about her career because
the records are classified, and Haspel herself, as acting CIA director, decides
how much – or, in this case, how little -- to declassify.

Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who
have read the classified material about Haspel but can’t divulge what they’ve
read, are frustrated.

Sen. Mark Warner of
Virginia, the top Democrat on the committee, said Haspel has the knowledge and
experience for the job, but “many people – and I include myself in that number
– have questions about the message the Senate would be sending by confirming
someone for this position who served as a supervisor in the counterterrorism
center during the time of the rendition, detention and interrogation program.”

Haspel would be the first woman CIA director, and she
has bipartisan support from former CIA directors.

Butmore than 90 former U.S. ambassadors and
diplomats and more than 100 retired generals and admirals have signed letters,
raising concerns about her nomination and the extent of her role in “enhanced”
interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, as well as destroying
evidence of the activities many call torture.

Most Senate
Republicans support Haspel but Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who suffered
torture for five and a half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, issued
a statement Wednesday night urging the Senate to reject Haspel.

“I believe Gina Haspel is
a patriot who loves our country and has devoted her professional life to its
service and defense,” McCain said. “However, Ms. Haspel’s role in overseeing
the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge
torture’s immorality is disqualifying.”

In 2002, Haspel ran a CIA “black site” detention
facility in Thailand where at least one suspected terrorist was waterboarded
repeatedly.

In 2005, as Congress was about to launch an
investigation, she advocated destroying more than 90 videotapes of the
suspect’s interrogations. At the request of her boss, she drafted a cable
ordering the destruction. He sent the cable himself.

Haspel proved a wily witness at her confirmation
hearing. Often evasive, she repeatedly said she has a strong moral compass. She
dodged questions about her role at the detention center but insisted the
techniques were legal and approved by President George W. Bush.

She said she would not restart the “enhanced”
interrogation program, even if Trump, who said during the campaign he might
bring back waterboarding, ordered her to do so.

“We’re not getting back into that business,” she said.

The committee is expected to vote next week, with a
full Senate vote in a few weeks. It appears Haspel may squeak through.

Republicans hold a 51 to 49 Senate majority, but
McCain is battling brain cancer in Arizona. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of
Kentucky has said he will vote no. But Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West
Virginia will vote for confirmation, and a couple of other Democrats also
facing tough re-election bids may do the same.

Haspel portrayed herself as “a typical middle-class
American,” although one with no social media accounts.

It’s time she put more on the table than her spy novel
stories. Haspel needs to declassify records of her career, so everyone can
judge whether she’s fit for the job.

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Dan Helmer, an Army
veteran, went to a gun show in Northern Virginia and bought a semiautomatic
rifle similar to the one he carried in Iraq and Afghanistan in under 10 minutes
-- without a background check.

He could have been
someone with deadly intentions, but Helmer was making a point about lax gun
laws.

He’s one of six
Democrats competing in the June 12 primary for the prize of competing in
November against Rep. Barbara Comstock, the Republican incumbent representing
the 10th District.

Helmer demonstrated how
easy it is for someone showing only a Virginia ID to buy what he calls “an
incredibly dangerous piece of weaponry that’s meant for war,” adding the gun
show in Chantilly was less than two miles from a school.

Helmer’s campaign
surreptitiously recorded the transaction and posted the video online. It
promptly went viral.

“Weapons of war don’t
belong on our streets,” he says.

Comstock was a top
recipient in the House of National Rifle Association contributions in 2016. Election
trackers say she’s vulnerable in a district where Hillary Clinton beat Donald
Trump by 10 points.

The primary campaigns of
2018 increasingly are a battle over guns. Democrats fight among themselves over
who’s tougher on gun control while Republicans go after each other on who’s
stronger on the 2nd Amendment.

Democrat Karen Powers
Mallard, a reading teacher from Virginia Beach making her first bid for
Congress, used a video to show her commitment to ridding the streets of assault
weapons.

She took a saw to her husband’s
AR-15 – and videoed its destruction. Her husband dropped off the gun pieces at
the police station -- but not before gun rights advocates blasted his wife
online.

But Rep. Scott Taylor,
the Republican incumbent, is a former Navy SEAL who opposes stricter gun
control laws. The race leans Republican, election trackers say.

Sometimes contests get
nasty. Helmer criticized state Sen. Jennifer Wexton, the only Democratic candidate
who has elected office experience, for supporting a legislative compromise that
expanded the rights of people with concealed-carry handgun permits.

Wexton has an F rating
from the NRA. She said Helmer doesn’t know what it’s like to be in the legislative
trenches. She has raised more money than others in the race and has more endorsements
from fellow lawmakers, including Gov. Ralph Northam.

Primary season begins in earnest this month with contests in 11 states. Virginia
is among 17 states with primaries in June, the busiest month. There are none in
July, 14 in August and five in September, the National Conference of State
Legislatures reports.

The gun issue cuts both
ways, as Trump’s fourth appearance before the NRA in four years indicates. The
NRA invested $30 million in Trump’s 2016 campaign, and despite his pledging to
“do something” to stop gun violence, he hasn’t. His frequent campaign rallies
keep his base motivated to vote in November and in 2020.

One of the more
interesting gun-centric GOP races is the gubernatorial primary in Georgia. Secretary
of State Brian Kemp just released an ad in which he sits surrounded by guns, rubbing
a cloth over a shotgun, while he quizzes a teenager named Jake, “a young man
interested in one of my daughters.”

Kemp then points the
shotgun in Jake’s direction. It’s supposed to be funny.

Last month, another would-be
governor, West Point grad and Army combat veteran Hunter Hill, aired an ad called
“Liberals won’t like this” that showed him loading an assault rifle.

He’s surely right, but
will they vote?

In off-year elections,
people tend to snooze through primaries and don’t bother to vote. This year
could be different, with Democrats energized and Parkland students keeping the
issue alive. But only those who actually cast ballots have a say in who wins.